New TTIP ‘transparency’ agenda still leaves public in the dark
War on Want | 3 December 2015
New TTIP ‘transparency’ agenda still leaves public in the dark
This week’s concession to create more access to secretive EU-US trade deal documents falls woefully short of any meaningful transparency for the 500 million people of Europe.
An agreement between the European Commission and European Parliament to make key Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) texts available to all 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) was announced yesterday.
However, national MPs still cannot access TTIP texts. As War on Want revealed last month, plans for national ‘reading rooms’ for TTIP are in fact part of an effort to ensure TTIP information does not leak to the public.
The Brussels deal, a product of intense public pressure, is wholly undermined by the fact that MEPs will still face draconian secrecy measures. Most importantly, MEPs will not be able to share the details of what they read with their constituents or trade experts who can help them understand the documents.
The farce of TTIP ‘transparency’ and the European Commission’s ‘stakeholder engagement’ was highlighted at the last round of negotiations: no negotiators attended the ‘stakeholder outreach’ session where civil society representatives presented their views on the controversial issue of investment protection.
War on Want calls for TTIP negotiations to be stopped immediately.
